Archive for the ‘Baby’ Category

I would like to introduce you to our new son, Callan Gregory Frost. He was born on March 12th at 8:13am and he came into this world in a much less stressful way than Elena. He weighted in at 7 lbs 4 oz and is 20 1/2″ long. Both mom and baby are doing very well and we where able to come home yesterday.

Gillian went full term and did not have any complication, no pre-eclampsia this time! Callan was actually born on his due date, something that only happens about 2% of the time, so says my mother-in-law. Gillian also did not need to have a c-section, which we have discovered is a much better way to do things.

Elena is ecstatic! Her baby Callan is finally here and not in Mommy’s belly anymore. She has already started talking for him and bring him toys that are far to large for him. She has been very sweet to him, I can only hope it stays that way … at least for the first year…six months?…ok, if she can go 3 months without demanding Callan goes back into Mommy’s tummy, I will call it a win.

I did purchase CallanFrost.com and avid readers of this thing may have noticed the “Callan” link in my Friends column. His website is up and running, so feel free to visit for all things Callan…Elena might be in there a little as well, I doubt I will be able to take many pictures of him without her. Pictures, like always, will be up on flickr as well.

So far he has been sleeping fairly well, so Gillian and I are not complete walking dead, of course it has only been two nights. The little blonde opinionated two and half year old still wins the most frustrating child of the house award, Callan has a lot to training before he can even think about taking a run at that crown.

The strangest thing for me is that it is not just Elena anymore, I can now say I am a father of two… weird. Also, since Elena was really my only experience with babies I associate “baby” with “baby girl” so I find myself looking at the bright pink whatever in a store and I have to stop myself and say “wait, he is boy”. Not that I would really care if my boy wears pink, I just don’t want to force it on him.

Oh and everyone asks about the name so here you go; Callan is just a name for a baby book, we liked it, that is it. Gregory was my Dad’s name, it was actually his middle name but he always went by Greg instead of his given name of James, this caused a lot of confusion with people in his life, and death for that matter. I thought it would be a great way to honor my father and give my son a little story to go with his middle name.

Alright, I have finished a post, something I haven’t done in a while, everyone is asleep so I should really stop typing and join them…I have a feeling I am going to need it.

Well if you haven’t already heard we are expecting our second child. Last Thursday Gillian had her first Ultrasound. We are happy to say that “Baby 2.0” is a healthy baby …boy! I quote, “110% boy”. The most important part is that he is healthy, everything is developing as it should, but I must admit I was a little nervous that I was going to have a house full of girls. Gillian is also doing well, except for a horrible cough she has had for the last few days.

No, we have not picked a name yet but now that it is a little more real for me, it was always real for Gillian, I think I will have a easier time coming up with names…or maybe a harder time.

Ok, so I have done these “where has the time gone” posts a few time before and I think now that I have a daughter they are even more cliche but I have a number of things to blog about an if I try to make each one its own post it just plan won’t happen. So here we go I apologize in advance if I forget something and as always the horrible grammar.

Last weekend was another patent pending Frost family whirlwind trip, this time to Omaha. I actually took Friday off of work for Elena’s first trip to Omaha. The main reason for taking off work was to take the Outback in to have a trailer hitch installed, they are not open on Saturdays. I also used this trip to break-in our new roof cargo carrier, as I have stated a number of times already…yes, we are those people. In all honesty we probably don’t need it but I wanted it. I put the stroller and our suitcase up there with plenty of room to spare, I will be writing a full review of the pod as well as the trailer hitch soon, I know you are all excited.

Anyway, back to our weekend. Friday afternoon we took our first family trip to the zoo. For those not familiar with Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo, it is truly a world-class zoo and if you get a chance, go, it is well worth it. On the day we visited it was nearly 727 degrees outside. We mostly visited the indoor, air-conditioned exhibit,obviously Elena is a little too young to do anything but stare at the top of her stroller and sleep but it was good practice for navigating through crowded spaces with a stroller…I only hit one person in the back of the leg.

On Saturday morning we went down to visit Elena’s Great-grandparents along with Granny, Aunt Jamie, and Lucas. It was nice to see three generations in the same room. Sunday we were all able to get on the road fairly early, it was nice to get back home after a long weekend with time to relax, before starting back to work.

Really I can’t complain too much. Elena has been keeping us on a pretty constant schedule, she only wakes up two to three times a night and she goes back to sleep after she has been changed and feed. Though, I have been late to work every day this week, I think that is more because I have an excuse.

Ok, now I am exhausted. I was going to go into Gillian’s maternity leave and how Elena likes to grunt and growl, but those will have to be a later posts. For now I will just say everyone is doing well and we are sleeping as much as we can.

Amazingly, we have all been home from the hospital for a week and I think we are all starting to get into a routine. Lucky, Elena does not scream much, at least not yet. She mostly sleeps for about two to three hours than screams. I change her diaper, Gillian feeds her and she falls back to sleep. Gordie and Olive have adjusted nicely; Gordie has appointed himself as Elena’s protector, if she cries, he comes running. Olive is in charge on night duty, she has taken to sitting on the edge of the bed and watching Elena sleep in the bassinet. I have been trying to post a picture a day up on Elenafrost.com and of course all my pictures are up on Flickr.

On Friday, after a fair amount of begging from Gillian to her OB, Gillian and Elena were released to go home. So we bundled up Elena and went home. Gillian and I and Elena could not have been happier. The first night home we as well as most first nights home with newborns, we didn’t sleep much. We are still trying to figure out what our routine will be, but Gordie and Olive seem to be taking the change well. Gordie runs in circles and wines every time Elena cries and Olive seems mostly indifferent.

I would like to officially introduce our new daughter, Elena Fordyce Frost. She was born today June 30th at 8:56 am. She is 5 lbs 15 oz and 19 1/2 inches long. She came out screaming and both her and mom are doing just fine.

Long story short, the induction did not work and due to the pre-eclampsia our doctor did not want Gillian to stay pregnant for any longer, so she went in for a c-section. Now after all the stress and worry and IV bags (there where 5 of them at one point) everyone is doing fine. Gillian is feeling much better and healing well, Elena is sleeping mostly but has eaten a few times and I changed her diaper! Everything is starting to calm down and Gillian and I couldn’t be happier.

Ok, Gillian had an appointment this morning and her blood pressure was still high. They want to do another 24 hour urinalysis, and want to monitor her blood pressure, so she has been admitted to the hospital. She is doing alright and the baby is doing great, if the urinalysis comes back with higher amounts of protein they will start the process of inducing labor, if not we may go home for a while. My money is on the later, but we will know more tomorrow.

Gillian is officially 37 weeks pregnant and her uneventful pregnancy has made an unfortunate turn to the more dramatic. A few days ago Gillian had a pounding headache, her fellow OTs immediately took her blood pressure and it was high. She went into the OB a few hours later and she had her do a number of tests, including collecting her urine for 24 hours, “Don’t drink the stuff in the brown jug in the frig” and a non-stress test. Long story short, it looks like she has the beginning signs of preeclampsia. Gillian is on bed rest, she is doing fine and goes into the doctor again on Monday. We are taking it day by day, if things don’t change she could deliver at 39 weeks, if things get worse it could be sooner. Gillian had another ultra sound, so we are now sure Elena is a girl and we also know she is very healthy. Though all of this we have been told a number of times that the baby is doing great! Delivery will most definitely happen before July 17th, we are not sure what our plans for the 4th of July are going to be yet, we may be at the hospital.